Exam question 1 · Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin

Identify the principal function of the expression "mistakes were made" in an official statement.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, expression · What happens: identify, make · To what, where: principal function, mistakes, official statement

This is exam question 1 of lesson 24 «Soft words for hard things: politics and government spin» of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 function	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 function	amod
4	function	function	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 expression	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 expression	det
7	expression	expression	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 function	nmod
8	"	"	PUNCT	_	7 expression	punct
9	mistakes	mistake	NOUN	Number=Plur	11 made	nsubj:pass
10	were	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	11 made	aux:pass
11	made	make	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	7 expression	acl:relcl
12	"	"	PUNCT	_	11 made	punct
13	in	in	ADP	_	16 statement	case
14	an	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	16 statement	det
15	official	official	ADJ	Degree=Pos	16 statement	amod
16	statement	statement	NOUN	Number=Sing	11 made	obl
17	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal function of the expression					vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent function=Theme
2	make in a quote	past · passive	the expression not said here	mistakes		a official statement			vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

To deny that any error occurred

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 deny	mark
2	deny	deny	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	that	that	SCONJ	_	6 occurred	mark
4	any	any	DET	PronType=Ind	5 error	det
5	error	error	NOUN	Number=Sing	6 occurred	nsubj
6	occurred	occur	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	2 deny	ccomp

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	deny	to-infinitive							vn conjecture-29.5 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme
2	occur	past	any error						vn occur-48.3-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme

Option 2

To attribute the error to a named official

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 attribute	mark
2	attribute	attribute	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 error	det
4	error	error	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 attribute	obj
5	to	to	ADP	_	8 official	case
6	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	8 official	det
7	named	name	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	8 official	amod
8	official	official	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 attribute	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	attribute	to-infinitive		the error				to a named official	tree rules
2	name	participle							vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

To acknowledge error whilst concealing the responsible party

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 acknowledge	mark
2	acknowledge	acknowledge	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	error	error	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 acknowledge	obj
4	whilst	whilst	SCONJ	_	5 concealing	mark
5	concealing	conceal	VERB	Tense=Pres VerbForm=Part	2 acknowledge	advcl
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	8 party	det
7	responsible	responsible	ADJ	Degree=Pos	8 party	amod
8	party	party	NOUN	Number=Sing	5 concealing	obj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	acknowledge	to-infinitive		error					vn confess-37.10 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent error=Topic
2	conceal	gerund		the responsible party					vn concealment-16 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent party=Patient

Option 4

To specify the date of the error

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	To	to	PART	_	2 specify	mark
2	specify	specify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 date	det
4	date	date	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 specify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 error	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 error	det
7	error	error	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 date	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	specify	to-infinitive		the date of the error					vn characterize-29.2 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent date=Theme

Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/euphemisms/24-government-spin/e1/